Console and VR store rules for cross-platform purchases

What each console and VR store allows

Console and VR stores are the strictest places to sell. Here is what the public record shows for each, as of October 2026:

Two of the four platforms publish their rules. For the other two, anything more specific than this table comes from confidential agreements, and this page does not guess at them.

Xbox: Microsoft’s billing, 30%, and the consumption clause

The Microsoft Store Policies cover Xbox as well as Windows. The version in force today is 7.19, effective since 14 October 2025. Its section 10.8.1 lists the products that must use Microsoft’s in-product purchase API, and “(b) Products offered on Xbox consoles” is one of them. The same section sets the limit on steering:

The sentence has two halves. The first bars the Xbox build from sending players to your web shop or any other checkout. The second allows the game to let players use content they already own. That second half is the public text that cross-platform entitlements on Xbox rest on. It does not say where the earlier purchase may have happened, and it does not mention currency by name. Version 7.19 adds, in section 10.13.12, that digital game content shared or roamed on another platform, network or store must comply with Microsoft’s XR-007 requirement.

Microsoft’s store policies (version 7.20, effective 22 October 2026) keep the section 10.8.1 sentence; the change history lists no change to section 10.8, and Microsoft had published no later version when we checked in October 2026. Version 7.20 adds a section 10.13.13 on cross-platform entitlements and commerce for games that use Xbox network services. It says titles “can, at their discretion, sync game progress, virtual currency wallets, and ingame items” across platforms. It also says that if you sell cross-platform content on another platform or store, you must offer the same or better deal in the Microsoft Store, naming “bonus virtual currency” among the things Xbox players must not be disadvantaged on. On its plain wording, a web-only currency bonus for a game on Xbox network would breach 7.20 from 22 October 2026. Check that clause with your Microsoft contact before you set web bonuses.

The fee comes from the App Developer Agreement (version 8.11, in effect since 17 April 2026). Section 6(b) sets the Store Fee at “Thirty percent (30%) of Net Receipts” for all Xbox console games in the Microsoft Store and for “all In-App Products acquired on a non-subscription basis by Customers in the Microsoft Store on an Xbox console.” Section 5(d) requires all games, and all apps on Xbox consoles, to use Microsoft’s commerce engine. Compare the 12% Microsoft charges on PC games, covered in the PC stores guide.

Console developers and publishers also sign ID@Xbox or publisher agreements with Microsoft, which are not public. They may add conditions to anything above.

Meta Quest: Platform in-app purchases, 30%, 15% on later subscription months

Meta’s app policy 1.1.1 bars apps on its platform from using their own commerce systems for payments, with specific exceptions. For games the rule is plain: “For example, if your app has in-app purchases, and your app is distributed through any Meta Platforms Technologies distribution channel… you must use the Platform In-App Purchases to handle such payment processing.”

Policy 3.3.1 closes the obvious workaround. Cross-app linking, where a user moves between two apps through a deep link, “cannot be monetized, without Meta’s prior written permission.”

The fee is in the Electronic Developer Distribution Agreement, in effect since 9 May 2025. Meta keeps “thirty percent (30%) of the Net Revenues” on app revenue. On subscriptions, Meta keeps 30% for the first three consecutive months of each subscription term and “fifteen percent (15%)” from the fourth month on.

PlayStation and Nintendo: what is public

Sony’s and Nintendo’s developer agreements are confidential. Neither company publishes its commission or its rules on purchases made outside its store. This page states nothing about their current terms.

One PlayStation document is public, because it was filed in the 2021 Epic v. Apple trial. It is a single page from 2019 titled “Cross-platform revenue share,” and PC Gamer reported its central rule:

In plain numbers, using our own illustration: a game earning $1 million a month, with 95% of its players on PlayStation and $900,000 of revenue on PlayStation, has a revenue share of 90% against a play share of 95%. The ratio is about 0.95, above 0.85, so no royalty is due. If the same players spent most of their money on other platforms, the ratio would drop and Sony would bill the difference. Partners had to send Sony monthly reports to support the calculation.

Epic’s chief executive Tim Sweeney testified that Epic agreed to the terms to get Fortnite cross-play on PlayStation. “If someone primarily were playing on PlayStation but paying on iPhone, then this might trigger compensation to Sony,” he said, as quoted by Axios.

What this means for a cross-platform currency wallet

A cross-platform wallet lets a player buy currency in one place (your website, a PC store, a phone) and spend it in any version of the game.

No console or VR store in this table lets its build point players to your web shop. Microsoft bars directing users to other purchase mechanisms. Meta requires its own in-app purchases and bars monetized cross-app links. The store policies quoted here govern what the build does. They do not address your email, your community channels or your website.

Xbox’s public policy permits the game to honor earlier purchases, and from 22 October 2026 version 7.20 names virtual currency wallets explicitly. It also requires Xbox players to get the same or better offers, bonus currency included. Whether currency bought on your website qualifies still depends on that wording and on your private agreements with Microsoft.

Meta’s public policies quoted here say nothing either way about spending currency bought elsewhere, so ask Meta before you build on it.

At least one platform has charged for cross-platform spending. Sony’s 2019 policy tied the royalty to where players played against where they paid. Any platform with a rule like that needs to know where each unit of currency was bought and where it was spent. Build the wallet to record both from day one, so you can report whatever your agreements require.

For comparison, Apple’s guideline 3.1.3(b) lets multiplatform games give players consumable items bought on the web or other platforms, provided those items are also on sale through in-app purchase. The Apple US guide covers it.

Dates behind these rules

Before you add consoles to a web shop plan

1. Keep every console and Quest build free of links, buttons and messages pointing to outside purchases.
2. On Xbox, confirm with your Microsoft contact that your ID@Xbox or publisher agreement allows web-bought currency to be spent under the section 10.8.1 consumption clause, and how the section 10.13.13 offer-parity rule in version 7.20 applies to your web bonuses.
3. On Quest, get Meta’s written view before letting players spend currency bought outside Platform In-App Purchases.
4. On PlayStation and Nintendo, read your own agreements for cross-play and outside-purchase terms. Public sources will not tell you.
5. Record where each unit of currency was bought and where it was spent, per player and per platform.